Will, Kate and Harry visit Princess Diana's grave on her birthday

Princess Diana's children and grandchildren honored her on what would have been her 56th birthday.

Author:
Tegna

Published:
7:36 AM EDT July 3, 2017

Almost 20 years since Princess Diana's death, her children, and the grandchildren she never met, visited her grave Saturday. The mother of Prince William and Prince Harry would have turned 56 years old that day.

William's wife, the Duchess Kate of Cambridge, and kids Prince George and Princess Charlotte were included in a private rededication service, along with Diana's siblings. Prince Charles, Diana's ex-husband, was absent from the event and in Canada with his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. According to Kensington Palace, the ceremony took place in Althorp House, in Northamptonshire in the English countryside, and conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Althorp House is open to tourists periodically, but Diana's gravesite has been off-limits to the public and Earl Spencer, Diana's brother, announced a multi-million-dollar redesign of the island, earlier this month.

William and Harry, who were 15 and 12 years old when their mother died in a car crash on in 1997, have marked the anniversary by commissioning a statue of Diana. Before the statue is erected in the public gardens of Kensington Palace in London in August, visitors are leaving balloons, signs and flowers at the palace gates to honor Diana.